Schwab Announces 2007 Impact Award Winners at Conference

Transitions of several kinds were clearly on the mind of the advisors who custody with Schwab. When one advisor speculated over how long Chuck Schwab would remain at the helm of his company, Bettinger joked that "Chuck's rate of aging is slower than mine." In response to a question from an advisor who asked whether Schwab would itself consider buying up advisor firms, Goldman said "we've looked at that over the past six years," but concluded that doing so would be "uneconomic and non-strategic"

When it comes to financing advisors, Goldman admitted that Schwab is helping provide financing to wirehouse brokers going independent, and that "we're considering providing financing" to advisors who are looking to acquire other firms, but noted that the economics of such lending could be "difficult," giving the example of an advisory firm with $200 million in AUM that wanted to acquire a $400 million firm.

Finally, in response to an advisor's observation that there seems to be a significant change–a very positive one–in the way that Schwab's top management is speaking to its advisor clients, Goldman said that "over the last three years, we realized we had a responsibility to drive growth in the industry."

This year's Impact Conference, which celebrate Schwab's 20 years of serving the advisor marketplace, drew some 3,800 attendees, the largest turnout in the event's 17-year history.